do you think the Death penalty deters crime??

Question

does the death penalty keep the crime rate down?

Answer 1

In America? Obviously not - look at the crime rate. Look at how many people get killing in Oakland over one weekend.... That prettty much sums it up.

I used to live in Saidi Arabia. There, they force expatriots (people from outside the country) to watch public beheadings and punishments so as to deter crime. While I was there, I was forced to watch a beheading and a man have his hand cut off for stealing. Does it deter crime? Well, seeing as I had to view it means that someone had commited some act to receive the punishment....so Id have to say it doesnt deter crime the way you think it would. People still steal and kill.... There is really no way of knowing what it would be like if they didnt do that in those countries... Would the crime rate increase? Maybe...maybe not....

Answer 2

There is no evidence that the death penalty is a deterrent to the crimes for which it applies in the United States. The several states that have no death penalty (Michigan, Massachusetts, Maine, Alaska, Hawaii, Minnesota, West Virginia, Vermont, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Rhode Island), for example, have, year in and year out, a lower murder rate than the death states have. Most scholars do not believe there is any relation between having a death penalty and having lower murder rates (however often that occurs). Whether the death penalty is a deterrent is not a good question. Of course it is a deterrent. The question is whether the death penalty is a greater deterrent than other readily available alternative sanctions, such as life imprisonment. As for me, I would much rather suffer a needle in the arm than a life in prison - but interestingly, I will never consider killing anyone in an abolition state such as Massachusetts. People murder because they are 1) angry, 2) trying to gain advantage (such as robbing someone). Rarely ever does a careful evaluation of penalties ever come into consideration.

It should be pointed out however that the death penalty is not, and has never been, factually based on a demonstrated or putative deterrent effect. The death penalty is a sop to the victimized and an expression of state authority over life and death, not a rational response to crime. Death penalty support is emotion-based, not reason-based.

Answer 3

Of course it does. Had an argument with my Sociology Prof about it years ago. I had been overseas and lived in other cultures. He had been stuck in the Midwest all his life. He cited study after study. I cited my own life experience in those other cultures where punishment is severe, non-negotiable, and the crime rate is low, very low compared to ours.

His studies turned out to be junk. They didn't interview criminals and deliquents to see if the surety of a more severe punishment would have detered them from their behaviour. These were just annual polls of college students at UC Berkley.

There are those that will state that we are about the only western nation that still has a death penalty and that means there must be somethng wrong with us then(according to the leftists). They fail to look at the cultures that have not had a death penalty, those that did but no longer feel the need for it, and the crime rates in those cultures. I also like to point out we are also the only western nation that has a problem with pornography (Creates criminals according to the right wingers don't you know???).

Crimes that currently merit the death penalty are reserve for the most henious crimes,or crimes where there are aggravating circumstances. Serial killers, sociopaths, and the like, these types of criminals generally won't be detered. They know the system - they will live a good long time behind bars before they are executed. They will have their moment of fame. Once they are executed, they can't commit crimes anymore. The aggravating cirmstances criminals often can be detered from furthering his crimes. You have seen a proliferation of bank robberies with fake bombs, career criminals who run but won't shoot at the cops, those sorts of things where when they get caught, they can wheel and deal and they can have some hope of freedom. If they kill someone robbing the bank, kill a cop who is trying to apprehend them, there will be no deals - they know this.

My take on this - I don't see the benefit of keeping some of these people alive. I see no purpose in a "Life Sentence" - pretty rare someone gets old inprison anyway. We can't use them for medical testing (I don't see why not). They recieve better from society than the poorest law abiding citizens among us. Better food, better housing (granted it is a cell, but they don't have to want for anything but freedom), better health care. Our tax dollars could be better spent. Terry Schiavo, in her persistant, vegatative state, and before all the controvesy, contributed more to society than any of these wastes of flesh.

A very smart man once said, and I paraphrase, "It is not so much the severety of punishment, it is the surety of punishment that deters crime". That was over 400 years ago and it is still true today.

Answer 4

Only when they actually enforce it. Not just talk about the threat of it. That is not why we have it thou. Not so much to keep crime down but actually punish the person that committed the crime. Rehabilitation may not always work but we know for a fact that every time we use the death penalty that the person has never committed another crime after that.

Answer 5

No, because most criminals think they won't be caught, also look at how many are still sitting in death row years or even decades after sentencing.

The othe thing too is that the death penalty is applicable to crimes of passion. If a man came home and found his wife in bed with another man and he killed them, garaunteed he is not in the right frame of mind and consider what consequence might be.

Answer 6

Yes, but I think it would deter crime alot better if a defendant didn't get to set on death row for 20 years going thru every possible legal move in the book to try and get off of death row. Give them 1 mandatory appeal and then execute them.

Answer 7

Why do people think that if a criminals see another criminal die for his crimes that he will become a born again? Criminals or those that will be have no sense. The only thing it teaches the next person is how to not get caught. They could easily acess Criminalhistory.com and find out what they did or didn't do wrong.
You don't become a criminal because someone's has gotten caught because of something. If you want to commit a crime then the choice is there to be made. Someone isn't making the choice for you.

Answer 8

Yes!!! I KNOW it does. If a criminal commits murder and serves 10 years and gets out again and commits another murder, that is not deterring crime. On the other hand, if a criminal commits murder and gets the death penalty; when the penalty is applied, that is a DETERRENT.

Answer 9

No, do you think the criminal minds care? They do not. Criminal will always be criminal with or without death penalty. I do not believe in death penalty becuase is a barbarian practice. I wish the US laws will actully apply instead of given shorter sentences for "good conduct," "over population" in jails, or because the crimal is White, Black, Brown, Yellow, or Purple. The is law is the law and should be execute to anyone. This may help crime redution.

Answer 10

No, since most capital crimes are crimes of passion the consequences play very little in the decision to do them. Heat of the moment crimes make up a large majority of the death penalty crimes.